Webb, pioneer in organizational behavior, dies at 61

STANFORD -- Eugene J. Webb, a Stanford Business School professor
and one of the pioneers in development of research and teaching of
organizational behavior in business schools, died Tuesday, March 14, at
Stanford University Hospital of respiratory disease. He was 61.

During his more than 25 years at the Business School, Webb served in
leadership roles as associate dean of the Graduate School of Business,
chairman of the university's Faculty Senate, and as a faculty sponsor for
Stanford's program in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), a longtime friend, called Webb "an uncommonly
civil man with great research skills and practical insight."

Webb played a pioneering role in bringing behavioral psychology into the
mainstream curriculum of American business schools.

"He changed the way people thought about social science research and
changed the way it was taught in American business schools," said Albert H.
Hastorf, emeritus professor of psychology and human biology and a former
Stanford provost.

Webb's best known book was Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in
the Social Sciences, published while he was teaching at Northwestern
University's Medill School of Journalism and co- authored by Donald Campbell,
Richard Schwartz and Lee Sechrest. "If there were a Pulitzer Prize for
originality of ideas, I would vote to award it to Unobtrusive Measures," said
Gordon Allport, the distinguished Harvard professor who was one of the
nation's leading figures in social psychology.

"In his life and work, Gene stood for basic human values and an unwavering
commitment to his fellow human beings," said Business School Dean Michael
Spence. "His commitment to achievement, his kindness, his courage, and his
irrepressible humor will be terribly missed," Spence said.

Webb was a leader in developing many of the Business School's most
innovative programs. He was the founding director of the Public Management
Program, which introduced the study of the public sector and nonprofit
agencies into the management curriculum. He created and taught an MBA course
in crisis management as well as a course in philanthropy for MBA students
that culminated in students weighing grant proposals before passing out
$10,000 in charitable gifts. He also developed an executive education program
for corporate board directors.

In addition to faculty colleagues, Webb forged lasting ties with doctoral
students he advised, including management consultant and commentator Tom
Peters; Michael Ray, a professor of marketing at the Business School who had
been a student of Webb's at Northwestern; and Jeffrey Pfeffer, now a Stanford
Business School professor.

Peters dedicated his 1982 bestseller In Search of Excellence: Lessons from
America's Best-Run Companies to Webb and noted his leadership in
unconventional thinking about organizational effectiveness.

"His outstanding gift was the gift for friendship," said John Gardner, the
founder of Common Cause and former Johnson administration Cabinet member who
credits Webb with being instrumental in his decision to come to Stanford.

"He was my mentor during my first years here, despite the fact that I'm
considerably older than he," said Gardner, the Miriam and Peter Haas
Centennial Professor of Public Service. "He taught me about the university,
how it functions, and helped me with some crucial decisions. He was truly an
adviser."

Gardner and Webb, along with Palo Alto physician Walter Bortz, founded the
Experience Corps, an organization to take advantage of the skills and
experience of older volunteers for educational programs and service within
the community.

"As a new dean in 1969, I depended on his wise and candid advice in
matters academic, while at the same time finding him a source of innovation
and creative program ideas," said Arjay Miller, former president of Ford
Motor Company, who served as dean of the Business School until 1979. "Asked
to undertake new possibilities - teaching or administrative
- he never failed to respond wholeheartedly. I shall miss the
pleasure of his company."

"Gene was an institution builder," agreed Robert Jaedicke, who served as
dean from 1983 to 1990. Jaedicke said he agreed to become dean in part
because Webb was then serving as associate dean. "The term collegial was
invented to describe him and I'm sure that his collegiality extended beyond
the boundaries of the school itself. He was a friend whom we will all miss."

"Gene was always interested in the ethical aspects of work," said Hastorf.
"He was trying to find ways to measure things honestly."

The kind of research Webb advocated might measure youngsters' level of
activity by how fast their shoes wore out or track the popularity of
individual exhibits in a museum by measuring the wear and tear on the floor
in front of the displays.

At the time Unobtrusive Measures was published in 1966, American social
psychologists used two primary methods of research: experimental work based
on created situations, and questionnaires and public opinion surveys. Webb
proposed a third method "that changed the way people look at measurement in
social psychology and the way they did research and how they defined
variables," said Michael Ray.

With his usual good humor, Webb joked that his "unobtrusive" measures
could also be described as oddball. In the preface, he said he had toyed with
the idea of calling the book The Bullfighter's Beard since some observers
believed bullfighters' beards grew faster on days they fought. Webb
cautioned: "No one seems to know if the torero's beard really grows faster on
that day because of anxiety or if he simply stands further away from the
blade, shaking razor in hand."

Webb was born in Albany, N.Y. A psychologist, he received his bachelor's
degree from the State University of New York at Albany and his doctorate from
the University of Chicago. He worked for E.H. Weiss Advertising in Chicago
and in 1957 moved to the Chicago Tribune's marketing group as a research
psychologist.

In 1960 he began teaching at Northwestern University's Medill School of
Journalism; he came to Stanford Business School in 1968. In 1977 Webb became
the first holder of the School's Lane Family Professorship, an endowed
professorship honoring the late Laurence W. Lane, founder of Lane Publishing
Co., in Menlo Park, Ca., and publisher of Sunset magazine.

During his career, Webb ended up as chairman of most of the groups he was
associated with, including the Committee on Technology Assessment and
Exploratory Research for the National Science Foundation. He was an adviser
to the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, and a board member of the
American Institutes for Research. He also was a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological
Association.

At Stanford he was associate dean of the Business School, chairman of the
Faculty Senate, and co-chair of the University Advisory Board, the elected
panel of senior people who pass on all appointments and promotions at the
university. He served on a variety of campus committees including the Panel
on Human Subjects and Medical Research, and the Stanford Commission on
Investment Responsibility that in the late 1970s debated whether the
university should divest itself of stocks of firms that had holdings in South
Africa and Chile, among other places.

He is survived by his wife, Mimi; his mother, Alice Webb Connors, of
Albany, N.Y.; and three children: Leigh Geoffrey Webb, 38, of Washington,
D.C.; Alison Webb Desmarais, 36, of Barrington, N.H.; and Gregory Paul Webb,
32, of Washington, D.C.

A memorial service will be held at the Stanford Memorial Church at 4 p.m.
Tuesday, March 21. A reception will follow at the Graduate School of
Business. The family requests donations to programs that promote the healthy
development of young people. In addition, a fund will be established in his
name at the Graduate School of Business for the benefit of students in need
of financial assistance.

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